This series of interviews means a lot to me personally. I try my best to make EH-Net a welcoming place for security professionals (or aspiring ones) to talk about technology as well as their careers and life goals. This first of 3 interviews will help answer a number of questions people ask us all the time about advancing careers. This, plus my own talk at the SANS Pen Testing Summit entitled "DIY Career in Ethical Hacking" continues that quest. I hope it speaks to you as well.

The field of penetration testing, or ethical hacking as it is commonly described, is one of the fastest growing areas in the realm of Information Security. Whether that is attributable to the growing number of regulations such as HIPAA, SOX, GLBA et al or perhaps it is the fact that many hackers have grown up and now have families to support. Or just maybe it is the real fear today that many organizations are garnering more press attention for recent data theft incidents as opposed to their products. No matter how you look at it, penetration testing is becoming a maturing and legitimate profession.

Ed Skoudis of Intelguardians has been an author, instructor and professional penetration tester for the better part of 15 years. The SANS Institute has been a highly regarded organization extolling the virtues of security education, certification and research for quite some time as well. Together they have put together a summit specifically dealing with penetration testing as a profession. The SANS WhatWorks in Penetration Testing & Ethical Hacking Summit with Ed Skoudis brings together a number of authors, researchers, and actual practitioners of pen testing, the summit will not only give a view as to where we stand as a community right now but also where we are headed in the future. Joining Ed will be a number of celebrated hackers (the positive connotation of the term) including Google Hacking Expert, Johnny Long, and the man behind the Metasploit Project, HD Moore.

I once had a conversation of Ed Skoudis regarding career choices and advice. He indicated that he often gets asked how others can have a career like his. Barring the inevitable warnings of "careful what you wish for," he graciously shared a story with me. In short, he and a number of other friends in the industry sat down for dinner to answer the same question that others now put to Ed. "Hey. I want to do what that guy does. How do we do it?" This special set of interviews will give you a brief glimpse into what will be explored at the summit itself as well as a look into the how these gentlemen "Did it." Each of these three superstars will be asked the same three questions followed by additional questions specifically focused for that individual. Here we go!

oneeyedcarmen wrote:And if you'd been in the webinar yesterday, you'd be qualified for 20% off

Haha.. yeah, that's true. They offered that last time as well. And actually SANS has a pretty sweet multi-class deal too that I found out about after that last presentation. Still considering doing that in the future